Court Confirms Apple’s Data Protection Fight Against Government

A UK court has confirmed the existence of a legal fight between Apple and the UK government, with the latter reportedly demanding the iPhone-maker provide access to its most secure cloud storage systems. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Monday rejected an attempt by the government to keep secret the “bare details” of the litigation after privacy and media groups pushed for transparency, reported the Financial Times. “We do not accept the revelation of the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security,” the court said.

Media reports have indicated that the Home Office asked for the right to see users’ encrypted data in the event of a national security risk. At present, not even Apple is believed to be capable of accessing data and documents protected by its advanced data protection (ADP) programme. ADP allows users with iCloud accounts and storage to secure photos, notes, voice memos and other data with end-to-end encryption.



Only users can access their content. The Home Office reportedly issued Apple a “technical capability notice” in January, which demanded the California-based company provide access to iPhone backups. Apple launched a legal challenge to that directive, and the litigation is ongoing.

The Home Office asked the tribunal to keep secret the details of the case arguing the information would be “damaging to national security”. In a previous statement, Apple said, “As we have said many times before, we have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.” The company has already moved its iCloud Advanced Data Protection system from the UK as a result of the Home Office’s access request.

“The government believes both in protecting privacy and in ensuring that the most serious crimes and terror threats can be investigated or stopped. Let us be clear: any suggestion that this is a binary choice between public safety and privacy is incorrect. We can, and must, have both,” said the Home Office.

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